Stuck in circulation: children, ‘waithood’ and the conflict narratives of Israelis and Palestinians

Abstract

Recent scholarship on the circulation of children and on the plight of youth trapped in transition in Africa and the Middle East recognizes – from two separate vantage points – how the circulation of children extends from and then reproduces violence. Displacement (forced and voluntary) and stuckness (the inability to transition from childhood to adulthood due to exclusionary economic and political structures) are two related outcomes for young people in contexts of armed conflict and structural violence. Drawing on insights from these two research streams, this paper examines how Israeli and Palestinian youth perceive and represent themselves in relation to the different contested spaces that they occupy. Surface plays of power and territoriality are disrupted as well as reinforced by specific mobilizations of children and youth (as people), and by the circulation of ideas about children and childhood.

Keywords:

• waithood
• stuckness
• circulation
• displacement
• narrative